EFF Looking for Lawyers to Fight Mass BitTorrent Lawsuit

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) needs help defending “spam-igation,” the US Copyright Group’s mass extortion lawsuit targeting more than 50,000 people accused of illegally downloading one of several indie films, and just recently, the Academy Award-winning movie “The Hurt Locker.”

A few months ago I reported how the US Copyright Group, a DC-based venture combining the efforts of technology companies and a conglomeration of intellectual property law firms, had quietly sued more than 20,000 BitTorrent users for illegally distributing one or more of the indie films “Steam Experiment,” “Far Cry,” “Uncross the Stars,” “Gray Man,” or “Call of the Wild 3D” with plans to sue an additional 30,000 in the near future.

Since then one of the producers of the Academy Award-winning movie “The Hurt Locker” has also enlisted the group’s services, even going so far as to recently blast critics leery of the financial burden it poses for the accused as “morons” whose families he hopes “end up in jail one day for stealing so maybe they can be taught the difference.”

It intends to argue that since each person is a node or peer he contributes a portion of the movie to others downloading it, and is therefore illegally distributing the movie even if it may be just a few MB.

By suing people en masse they’re obviously hoping for a quick payday, urging the accused in so-called “settlement” letters that they can avoid a costly legal battle for a fee usually starting at $2500.

All along the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has been critical of the US Copyright Group’s new business model of mass extortion, calling the organization a “copyright troll” involved in “shaking down individuals for fast settlements a thousand at a time.”

Now the EFF is issuing a call to arms, and is looking for licensed attorneys across the US to help it fight this “spam-igation.”

“News reports suggest that the attorneys bringing these suits are not affiliated with any major entertainment companies, but are instead intent on building a lucrative business model built from collecting settlements from the largest possible set of individual defendants,” it warns.

It wants to compile a list of attorneys willing to advise the targets of these lawsuits, and where where appropriate, file motions to quash subpoenas used to extract contact info of suspected IP addresses from ISPs.

“Respondents’ contact information would be added to a website that will act as a resource for the targets of these lawsuits,” says the EFF.

Sometimes I think we take the EFF for granted. Here’s another example of it standing tall and working to defend those unable to defend themselves.

If you’re a licensed attorney and able to help, please contact [email protected] with your contact information or the contact information for your firm, and the states in which you are licensed to practice law.

Jared Moya
I've been interested in P2P since the early, high-flying days of Napster and KaZaA. I believe that analog copyright laws are ill-suited to the digital age, and that art and culture shouldn't be subject to the whims of international entertainment industry conglomerates. Twitter | Google Plus

isp's have very little to do with this stuff. copy right holders track every ip that downloads their stuff (torrent trackers), go to a judge to get the subpoena, the isp has no choice but to give up your info because they are required by law(in legal matters).
its just absurd that they can GET the subpoena in this way when they have no actual proof that you did anything wrong.

If you get a e-mail from your service provider, do not go to the settlement groups website, they rarely reply and when they do, it is well after the alloted time, their layers will send you a notice of intent to sue you should you try to settle with these people.
Let your ISP fight with them first, while you build a case, and purge anything that maybe illegal from your home. Remember if it goes to court, they maybe able to take all the computers and other electronic devices you have that can retain music, movies, ect... So if you have EVER placed anything no matter where you have received it from and do not have the recipt for it, it maybe used against you.
If you have a lower bandwidth usage as your normal usage, IE rarely going anywhere near your ISP limit, your more then likely will have a stronger case as you have no history of high bandwidth usage.
further if you should try to fight it, try to get the case moved to your home state, this way you do not go into high expensive with moving to CA where these firms try to sue you. Having home field advantage always helps.

I got one of these letters for a file called The Steam Experiment. What the heck is that? A $1500.00 settlement for something I did not do? No way, I'll spend more on a lawyer if I have to before I give them a dime. However they find these IP adresses is flawed and innocent people are getting these bogus letters.
I do not download movies, music or anything else. The heck with them, I'm fighting it to the end.

lol i just got the letter from them, but the funny thing is it said i downloaded a game call far cry but i have never heard of it untill now. where can i contact one of these lawyers? [email protected] contact me at if you know.